These are particularly intense and significant days, witnessing the crossing of people and destinies that appear disconnected only on the surface. This commonality is not drawn by geography, but by the fundamental divide between human dignity and systematic oppression.
After years of illegal uranium enrichment, deception in negotiations to resolve the nuclear issue, threats against Israel, activities supporting terrorism, abuses against the Iranian population, and human rights violations, the Tehran regime suffered an Israeli-American attack on February 28. This is the most evident and dramatic indicator of the clash between dignity and oppression. An oppression long embodied, in particular, by Iranian women—victims of violence perpetrated by the “morality police,” which suppressed every attempt to break free from the veil and other tools of control in the hands of the mullahs.
I think of Mahsa Amini, the name we all remember with bitterness: the girl beaten to death in September 2022 by Iranian police officers because she was not wearing her veil correctly. I think of Leila Farahbakhsh, an exile in Italy, who a few days ago interrupted a pacifist march in Florence organized by Arci, Anpi, and other acronyms of the world of the “pacifindi” (fake-pacifists)—to use the words of the late Marco Pannella—stigmatizing their silence on the deaths caused by the Iranian regime. “Why do you take to the streets against the war in Iran, but you didn’t take to the streets against the extermination of thousands of Iranians?” Leila asked the demonstrators.
However, the world of Iranian women is also a symbol of strength and determination in resisting the arrogance and bullying of the authorities. I think of the women of the Iranian resistance, including those who choose to wear the hijab. I think of Maryam Rajavi, who recently pointed out that when Khomeini’s forces beat women for refusing the mandatory veil, the veiled women of the MEK mobilized to defend them. If there is hope for change in Iran today, it is also thanks to the Iranian women who for years have opposed the violent and anachronistic policies of their country through non-violence and non-cooperation.
Turning to Europe, important meetings were held this week between Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, President of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus (the democratic government in exile), and President Mattarella and Prime Minister Meloni. The Belarusian leader, forced to leave her country after being robbed of victory in the 2025 presidential elections, also met with the Interparliamentary Friendship Group with the Belarusian people.
These meetings demonstrated Italy’s utmost solidarity and full support for a democratic and European Belarusian leadership. Her visit was an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of constant sanctioning pressure from the European Union on the Lukashenko regime—an accomplice in the Russian attack on Ukraine—and the release of all political prisoners. The release of political detainees is a priority that also stems from the fact that Belarus is one of the countries with the highest number of Catholic priests in prison, second only to Nicaragua.
Finally, moving to Asia, we must remember that March 10 marked the 67th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan National Uprising, when Tibetans rebelled in the capital, Lhasa, against the attack launched by the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China. An uprising that cost thousands of lives and demonstrated how determined Tibetans were, and still are today, to assert and protect their national identity even within China. This is indeed the sense of the “Middle Way” that the Dalai Lama has pointed to for many years as the most practicable solution to avoid new useless bloodshed without simultaneously renouncing one’s dignity and identity.
The challenge is precisely this: to prevent the genocide that Beijing is carrying out through a series of measures to forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, aimed on one hand at eradicating national identity and, on the other, at transforming Tibet’s natural environment. We are faced with policies sanctioned by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. These violations are produced by a regime that is trying to shape a new global order that disregards the universality of human rights, based on a dangerous cultural relativism through which power can justify abuse and injustice.
Lastly, as further proof that threats to democracy are not isolated crises but part of a single, global authoritarian offensive led by Iran, Russia, and China, there is the conviction of Jimmy Lai, the former founder and publisher of the pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper “Apple Daily.”
The politically motivated sentence imposed on him by the Hong Kong authorities at Beijing’s dictation is a chilling message to journalists and dissidents in the former British colony: freedom of expression and the press no longer exist. However, there must be no surrender. The international community, and particularly democratic countries, must continue to act to end the persecution of Jimmy Lai and obtain his release on humanitarian grounds.
Freedom is not a regional value, but a universal right. The sacrifice of thousands of Iranians killed in recent protests against the regime, the exile of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the increasingly severe assimilation suffered by Tibetans, and the unjust conviction and detention of Jimmy Lai are tragic challenges that the present offers us as an opportunity to build a future of freedom for everyone.
Giulio Terzi